Smile
by Numbuh 212
Summary: in Kindergarten, Fanny falls off the monkey bars and scrapes her leg. Hoagie tries to cheer her up with his jokes. Idea from Unifilar's In The Air. Oneshot. Number 14 of my 100 Theme Challenge.


I do not own Kids Next Door.

This oneshot is part of my 100 Theme Challenge. For more info, visit my profile.

14. Smile

_He'll never find me here,_ Hoagie thought smugly to himself as he curled up inside the tunnel slide. Sure, some of his fellow kindergartners were less than thrilled with his choice, but they would just have to wait their turn for the slide. Right now the most important thing was that his best friend Nigel didn't win the game of hide-and-seek.

At least it was until he heard a loud scream echo across the playground. Having heard similar screams before (though usually filled with annoyance instead of the pain he heard now) he knew immediately that it was Fanny Fullbright.

Forgetting the game completely, Hoagie slipped hurriedly down the slide and rushed to where the cries seemed to be coming from. Fanny lay below the monkey bars, obviously having fallen off, and there was a cut on her leg. It wasn't very deep but it was bleeding a lot, and she was obviously in pain.

Just then Nigel showed up, having also heard the scream, and Hoagie told him to get a teacher quickly. After a worried glance at the young girl's leg, he ran off to do what he had been told.

Hoagie himself got busy clearing away the crowd of curious onlookers that had begun to gather. "Come on, guys, there's nothing to see here. Go…jump off a playscape or something!"

The kids grudgingly backed off a few inches, but they refused to leave. He proceeded to ignore them, kneeling on the ground next to the injured girl and muttering the most reassuring things he could think of. "Shh, Fanny, it's okay. Nigel went to get the teacher, she'll call the nurse, and we'll get you all patched up, good as new. Better than new. We'll make you feel so good that you won't even remember getting cut. Monkey bars? What monkey bars? You didn't fall off of any monkey bars. You'll feel so good, you'll never feel bad ag-" he stopped, realizing that his babbling wasn't helping things. If anything, it was making her cry more. "Umm," Hoagie wracked his brain for something to cheer her up, "you wanna hear some jokes?"

Fanny didn't answer, but she began crying more softly, for the most part, which he took as a good sign.

"Okay, well, uh, why was six afraid of seven?"

She shook her head. "I don't know," she said, fighting back a sob.

"I thought everybody knew that one! Six is afraid of seven because seven eight nine, of course!"

No laughter, but there was a small smile on Fanny's face. He kept going.

"What was the problem with the wooden car that had wooden wheels and a wooden engine?"

She shrugged.

"It wooden go!"

This time Fanny giggled ever so slightly. Hoagie felt his shoulders relax as she stopped crying, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Still, he knew he had to keep her distracted.

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?" she whispered.

"Tinkerbell."

"Tinkerbell who?"

"I tink your bell is broken, that's why I knocked."

She giggled, and then laughed harder. "You're so funny, Hoagie," Fanny said, the pain in her leg forgotten.

Hoagie grinned in spite of himself. Nobody had ever told him his jokes were funny. His mother was always saying, "Maybe another time, dear," when he wanted to try out one of his new knock-knock jokes, and Abby, his other best friend besides Nigel, would hit him over the head with a book when he many any sort of pun. It felt pretty good to hear, as a matter of fact. He told several more of his favorites, and to his surprise, she seemed to like those too.

Fanny began hiccupping, she was laughing so hard, and then Nigel showed up with the worried teacher in tow.

"What happened here, Hoagie?" she asked in alarm.

"Fanny fell off of the monkey bars and scraped her leg, ma'am."

She bent over Fanny's leg and inspected the cut. "Hmm, yes, I see. Well, we better get you to the nurse and put a bandage on this scrape."

The teacher helped Fanny to her feet, and she limped to the nurse's office, clutching the teacher's arm to keep from falling over.

Hoagie watched her go with a mixture of worry and excitement on his face. "She said my jokes were funny," he sighed. "Do you think she'll be okay?

"Of course she will," Nigel reassured him. "Mrs. Anderson says she'll be just fine."

"Oh. Well, that's good then." Hoagie went back to his hiding place as Nigel began counting, once again focused only on whether or not Nigel would be able to spot him from where he was. Kindergarten was easy when you knew you had the power to make people smile.

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A/N: The basic storyline for this oneshot came from the amazing Unifilar's story In The Air. It's a great story, you should check it out. However, the filler, dialogue, and bad jokes came from me, so don't yell at her if they stink.

I wasn't really sure about characterization on this one, especially with Fanny as I don't think she was so sexist in Kindergarten, but I don't know. Reviews about it would be welcome, concrit greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Numbuh 212

P. S. Thanks so much, Unifilar, for letting me borrow your idea. You rock!


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